This invention relates generally to the field of cooking systems and processes, and more particularly relates to the field of such systems and processes for cooking meat, and even more particularly relates to such systems and processes for accurately cooking the meat to a desired level or degree of doneness and/or accurately determining the level or degree of doneness.
The common method for determining the level of doneness of meat is to measure the internal temperature of the meat using a thermo-probe that is inserted into the meat during the cooking process. When the internal temperature reaches a pre-determined value (e.g., for beef, well done=170 degrees, medium well=165 degrees, medium=160 degrees, medium rare=145 degrees and rare=135 degrees), the meat is considered properly cooked. This approach to determining the doneness of meat, however, generally results in over-cooked meat. Experiments suggest this approach is wrong as much as 75% of the time.
This invention contends the doneness of meat can be better determined by applying a function of time and temperature to the doneness determination. The transition from raw meat to meat cooked to various levels of doneness is actually a chemical reaction initiated by adding heat to the meat. As with most chemical reactions, the reaction rate is a function of temperature and the degree of completeness of the reaction is a function of time and temperature. This approach has been shown to be accurate more than 90% of the time. Of importance is the fact that this methodology accounts for variations and fluctuations of external temperature during the cooking process, which may result from movement of the meat to different locations on the cooking equipment, opening and closing the cover of a bar-b-que grill, etc.